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I’ve had another busy week this week with 5 new potential client meetings, a new coaching client sign up and ongoing book sales. I’ve also ordered more books for delivery and contacted a number of private schools to motivate their staff.
I am not naïve enough to think that the book is the golden egg, but what it will do is act as a business card out there and also gives me credibility as an expert in Mental Resilience. This should help me gain more speaking, training and coaching engagements in the future but meanwhile I need to continue working hard on my marketing.
Switching off
In the past I used to start off well in a particular job, and then I would switch off thinking that I had made it and that is where it would start going wrong. Not any more – I have learned through bitter experience that as soon as you think you have made it something changes and you can’t get it back.
So now even though on the face of it things are going well I am not falling for the old trap of switching off my efforts. I do however advocate rest and recovery and so I very rarely work on a Sunday because this is the day when I can spend time with Julie and family and relax and enjoy time with loved ones.
The importance of rest and sleep
The balance of rest and play is very important and I regularly hear of people who burn out and their business collapses because they don’t take the holidays and rest time needed for the body and mind to recover. Sleep is also very important and the evidence now is so strong that health is very seriously affected when we get under 6 hours sleep a day.
There are some exceptions to this but in most cases below 6 hours and problems can start to occur. I have a great chapter in my book on Sleep, with theory and an action plan to help you get to sleep, and more importantly help you get back to sleep when you wake up. This book is available to purchase on my website where I will sign a copy for you and write a personal message.
Free postage and packing
For my blog family I am offering free postage and packing and all you need to do is enter the code Free15 when prompted to receive you copy without any charge for postage and packing. The link to the book is:
I have received my first 5 star review on Amazon and you can find my book in paperback and Kindle here:
A learning experience
A couple of weeks ago I was working in Nottingham and I normally get up at 5.30am and I am in Costa by 6.30am to have my quiet time with my motivation books and Dream board to get me set up for the day. So this day I got up as usual had my shower and set off to Nottingham. The traffic at this time is usually quiet and this day was no exception – in fact it seemed even quieter than usual which was nice.
This particular morning I was feeling quite full as I had eaten a substantial meal the night before. My eyes were quite sore and I thought that maybe I was coming down with something. But being the resilient one I shrugged it off and drove on to Nottingham.
The lights were out
As I came nearer to Costa I drove to the petrol station I always go to get a copy of the newspaper and fill up with fuel. As I approached the station the lights were off and it was closed. This had happened before when they had slept in and I thought how typical that some people just can’t be organised enough to wake up at the correct time.
So I drove onto Costa and I couldn’t believe that it too was shut with the lights out. This puzzled me and I thought what are the odds of that? It was then that the realisation hit me – the extra quiet roads, my sore eyes, feeling full, and both the petrol station and Costa shut maybe it wasn’t 6.30am. I checked my watch and it was 1.30am!
Now several thoughts went through my head first of all I thought was an idiot I was for setting my alarm clock at 12.30am instead of 5.30am(I wasn’t wearing my glasses is my excuse). Secondly I thought what do I do now? It was 30 mins back to my home and I guess I had no choice but to drive all the way back. When I got home at 2.00am I had to go straight up to Julie to tell her what had happened, otherwise she would have thought it was a burglar. She laughed out loud!
What an idiot
I got ready for bed and reset my alarm for 5.30am and because of my sleep techniques went straight to sleep I woke at 5.30am got ready and repeated the process again this time I arrived at Costa at the correct time. I had my quiet time and ended up having a good day.
The thing I observed which was very interesting is that although I felt a little tired on the way when I found out that it was 1.30am I suddenly became very tired indeed. I could hardly keep driving as I was now aware of what time it was and lots of negative thoughts hit me. What was very pleasing was that my Inner Chimp didn’t come out once and I calmly drove home as I knew there was nothing else I could do and getting angry about the situation wouldn’t help.
Learning points
1. The mind is a powerful thing and if it can change the way you feel instantly as soon as it becomes aware of something. So you can alter the way you feel by thinking the right thoughts
2. You can learn something from every situation you face and you often learn more from things going wrong than going right
3. In this case I learned how the mind can fool the body into thinking all is well and it was until I realised it was 1.30am that I felt really tired
4. I also learned to check the time on my alarm clock before going to sleep – this will never happen again!
5. I learned to keep calm and my Inner Chimp under control in this situation where the old me would have got angry and maybe that anger would have made it more difficult to get back to sleep
6. A quick message to Kev in Costa – see I told you I would blog this
Have a great weekend and stay positive
Warm regards
John
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